The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn’t it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught a word and made a mountain out of a molehill…”
The Brothers Karamazov
I am in the middle of reading the book The Crucifixion, it is a book I am taking my time to work through, and I read something yesterday that stopped me dead in my tracks. I want to share it and make some comments, the intent of this blog post today is for devotional reading, a chance for you, the reader, to examine your heart while the snow gently falls. Here is the quote…
“Whenever possible, blame someone else.”
To give more background to this quote, the writer, Fleming Rutledge, was trying to describe how our natural tendency when life goes wrong is to deflect, to find someone else to blame, to never admit personal guilt. She continues, “There is another trait that is absolutely universal across every culture and race on earth, and that is the human preoccupation with condemning somebody else, sometimes to the point of wishing to eliminate that person altogether.” To prove her point she goes to Genesis 3:12 which says,
“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.”
The pattern which began in the garden assigns all of my sorrow and folly as someone else’s fault, and if I can’t find anyone else to blame I can always point the finger at Satan, “The Devil made me do it.” There is an almost abject fear in our culture of bearing personal guilt, we are told to be very careful about making people feel bad for the disastrous choices they make. They are the victim, walking in innocent bliss until some outside villain attacked them causing them to do something they never meant to do. The world ambushed us and sin is nothing more than self-defense…
It’s my parent’s fault.
It’s my spouse’s fault
It’s the cop’s fault.
It’s my lack of protein.
It’s gluten’s fault.
In the book On Being a Theologian of the Cross, author Gerhard O. Forde writes, “A sentimentalized theology gives the impression that God in Christ comes to join us in our battle against some unknown enemy, is victimized, and suffers just like us. Like the daughters of
He continues, “We no longer live in a guilt culture but have been thrown into meaninglessness – so we are told. Then the language slips out of place. Guilt puts the blame on us as sinners, but who is responsible for meaninglessness? Surely not we! Sin, if it enters our consciousness at all, is generally something that ‘they’ did to us. As Alan Jones Dean of Episcopal Cathedral of San Francisco, put it once, ‘We live in an age in which everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven.'”
Think about that last statement, “everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven.” If I can hook up with whoever I want, when I want, and as I want because God loves me regardless of what I do, what then do I do when my conscience condemns me? Ignore it? Suppress it? Blame someone else for the anxiety that follows me like a haunting shadow?
The beauty of scripture is that it is intended to reveal the sin that dwells in us so we can do something about it. But if sin becomes someone else’s fault there is no solution to our sorrow. This lack of honesty is destroying our country: Race wars, religious wars, political wars, economic wars, it is always someone else’s fault.
If only people would own up to their tresspasses and infractions the world would be a wonderful place. But as it stands now often the innocent are paying the debt of the guilty. And all you have left is more bitterness, strife, and contention…the beat goes on. Fleming Rutledge uses a stanza from a T. S. Eliot play called The Cocktail Party, it describes in poetic fashion the heart of the problem:
Half the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don’t mean to do harm – but the harm does not interest them.
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle,
To think well of themsleves.
Sir Henry Harcourt-Relly
Food for thought. I have been reading Revelations and trying to digest it. But this is also some of what needs to be heard.
Chris this reminds me of the survey that was taken a number of years ago. It was sent out to many well known people across the country. The survey was made up with one question ” what is wrong with the world “. Answers came back including poverty, lack of education, dictators, and so on. G.K Chesterton sent back a 2 word answer ” I AM” I don’t know why that is so hard for us to see, but i believe it is true